***** New VR Update, Render Engine, and Live Parks *****

Hello Everyone,

We wanted to give you an update on TPS development. Before we complete our final round of cleanup and bug fixes we had one more obligation to meet, VR support.

We had VR support up and running last year. Unfortunately Direct mode was not compatible with the graphics library we were using, but we needed to meet our obligations so we wrote some custom shaders and worked with the best options we had at the time. Unfortunately since then Oculus changed their support requirements which made the entire SDK library we used incompatible. We understand Oculus decision to drop this SDK support, and that it was simply due to progress. However, because of this change we were faced with either completely rebuilding our graphics pipeline or abandoning VR altogether. Neither option was good.

Then the Vive was released, and it was truly impressive. The graphical quality and user experience was simply amazing. Now we had 2 very solid pieces of equipment. We knew TPS’ extensive customization features, our immersive environment, and Live Parks were a perfect match for VR. In order to fulfill our obligations we decided to buckle down, strap ourselves in, go face down for a few months, and completely rebuild a new graphics engine

The results have been fantastic. The engine has been ported, we have added extensive optimizations, and have rebuilt the multi-threading which is now far superior to the previous build. We're getting dramatically higher frame rates and we'll be upgrading our shadowing soon.

Since then, we've also been contacted by Razer and plan to support the OSVR platform as well. Multiple requests from the community and strong support from hardware manufacturers reinforces our belief that TPS and Live Parks are an excellent fit for VR and we're looking forward to the update release.

Currently we are looking for VR testers as well as Live Parks testers. If you have a Vive, Oculus, or an OSVR kit, we hope you will sign up for VR beta testing by clicking here: http://www.instant.ly/s/8yq8q

If you do not have a VR device but would like to join our expansive Live Parks testing group, you can sign up here: http://www.instant.ly/s/s8LhR

We have had strong support from the community for Live Parks and appreciate all those that signed up. Live Parks testing is a lot of fun and includes socializing with other members of the community, competitive go kart racing with leaderboards, new interactive rides, exclusive sneak peeks at new parks, and more. We hope you will join us.

After the VR build is released, we will do our final round of cleanup and bug fixes, add the Platinum features, and ship the boxed edition.

Since TPS was first announced, the theme park sim genre has grown considerably and there are many new players on the market. It is great to see the genre revive. Our future roadmap goals include expanding on what makes us unique, and separates us from other products, including extensive customization, custom materials, in game physics based animator, programmable particle effects, interactive rides, and of course Live Parks with each park looking completely unique through specialized custom scenery and animations. Here are renders of one of the Live Parks being built by a member of the community. You can follow the authors progress here www.disneyparksearchive.com and on his twitter handle @DPEarchive. In game screenshots with the new lighting/shadowing will be posted soon.







TPS has grown exponentially since our announcement. If you look back to original videos you see it has expanded way beyond our original design. Early Access gave us the opportunity to take it further than we originally planned, which has not only benefited our backers but also helped us to build a product with unprecedented customization options and a new immersive social theme park experience.

We appreciate all our backers support, patience, and contributions along this incredible journey.

Thank You

Theme Park Studio Team